QEDman – Spearmint and Tangerine shave stick

Tags

7/10, citrus, Discontinued, Fruit, mint, QEDman, shaving soap, shaving stick, Spearmint, tangerine

Edit: as below, this line is no longer available.

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So, apparently the owner of the place that made the QEDman soaps for QEDman has retired. They’re down to one last scent available in the shaving stick, the wild orange, and three scents available for the tubs; Anise & Lavender, Grapefruit & Peppermint, and this one, Tangerine & Spearmint.

The lather is decent enough; a good balance of lubrication and thickness; you’ll want to be reasonably generous with the amount of water used. Somewhat narrow sweet spot to get the balance just right, but some good moisturization.

The balance on the scent is definitely predominately the spearmint, which shouldn’t be all that unexpected, considering it’s generally considered a much strong scent than tangerine. You can detect hints of the sweetness of tangerines underneath the minty-ness. Fairly pleasant, although I would have preferred more tangerine.

The strength is reasonable to start, without much in the way of fading. Not strong per se, but definitely not weak.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

Anyways, it’s a nice enough soap, with good performance in all areas, but nothing to write home about in any aspect. 7/10 overall.

• Cost: As mentioned, the shaving stick in this scent is no longer available, however a 5oz jar can still be found for $13.50. While they do ship to Canada and some other places outside the US, the shopping cart feature only works within the US, so you’ll need to e-mail for a quote.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Feather AS-D2
• Blade: Big Ben Super Stainless

Ingredients: Saponified 100% food grade coconut, palm, castor, and safflower oils, with kosher vegetable glycerin, soybean protein, aloe vera extract, and essential oils.

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Taylor of Old Bond Street – St James shaving stick

Tags

7/10, amber, bergamot, citrus, Coriander, floral, Fruit, geranium, lavender, lemon, mandarin, ozone, patchouli, pine, shaving soap, Spearmint, St. James, Taylor of Old Bond Street, wood

St James is nicely scented, a rather complex scent that I would have failed to realistically describe, so I’ll let the manufacturer speak to that:

A fresh masculine fougere opening with bergamot and mandarin intertwined with citrus ozone notes supported by a fruity floral heart resting on a woody amber base. Contains Coriander oil, Geranium oil, Lavandin Grosso, Lemon oil, Patchouli oil, Pine oil and Spearmint oil.

So… kind of reminiscent of Eton College, with some woody and ozone notes added. All in all, I think I slightly prefer Eton College, but they’re both nice enough scents.

Strength-wise, it’s decent enough. It isn’t really strong at all, but it also doesn’t seem to fade noticeably during the shave, staying at a nice medium level steady-state.

I was rather pleased with the lather as well. It lathered up easily, producing a thick cream with great glide, and excellent stability (it managed to stay there while writing most of this review). Not much in the way of moisturization properties, and the volume produced was perhaps a bit sub-par, but all in all, it’s what I’d say is a good shave.

• 8/10 Scent Pleasantness
• 8/10 Scent Strength
• 8/10 Lather Quality

So, Overall, I’m going to say a 7/10. It’s a nice middle of the road shaving soap, nothing outstanding about any aspect of it, but nothing to complain about either.

• Cost: While I got this one off someone on /r/shave_bazaar, a new one can be had for $14.50. This scent of soap is unfortunately only available in the stick.

Gear used:

• Brush: Wee Scott
• Razor: Gillette Travel Tech
• Blade: Astra Superior Platinum

Ingredients: Glycerin, stearic acid, aqua (water), potassium hydroxide, myristic acid, sodium hydroxide, parfum (contains: benzyl salicylate, linalool, hexyl cinnamal, limonene).